


Ruby had good intentions

by ArielleBrix



Category: RWBY
Genre: Body Modification, F!Jaune, Gen, Genderbending, Ruby Rose is a Faunus, Sort Of, new semblances
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-07 01:57:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15898572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArielleBrix/pseuds/ArielleBrix
Summary: There's definitely some AU components, but this is basically the idea of what if Ruby found Jaune before Pyrrha and things went horribly wrong.





	1. chapter 1

RWBY was not made by me. 

Note: the latest version of this story (with all available chapters) is available at  <https://lycelia.com/?id=25>   
  
Summary: In canon, Jaune gets super powers way too easily and Ozpin is way too powerful and wise for a school administrator. This is a story where neither of those things are true. Other things probably going to be slightly AU too. Oh, and Ruby doesn’t have a semblance yet.

 

**Chapter One**

 

She took the Beowolf unawares, Crescent Rose cleanly decapitating the young Grimm. She finished with a flourish to cast any clinging black smoke from the dissolving Grimm off her baby. 

Efficiency, that was the word of the day -- well, that and impressing the teachers with her super-awesome skills. But efficiency was a big part of what she was focusing on today. Clean strikes with her blade meant fewer bullets wasted, which was important because it would take her months to replace them with her limited allowance. Her father’s job as a part-time teacher and increasingly heavy drinker didn’t produce much money and dust prices were going up all the time. Throw in the fact that dust-infused sniper bullets cost ten times as much as smaller rounds and it was enough to make her think twice about using any of them unless it was life or death.

The rest of the pack probably wasn’t far off but so far they weren’t showing themselves. With so many students cast into the woods they were probably confused from having to pick from so many targets. But that didn’t explain why this one had been clawing at a tree like a bird after a squirrel.

“Oh.” A glance upwards revealed that there was a boy hanging from high up in the tree like a strange fruit. Vomit-boy if she wasn’t mistaken. Using Crescent Rose’s sniper scope revealed that it was indeed him. Or Jaune, as she remembered him naming himself. 

He didn’t look so hot. For some reason there was a spear through his shirt holding him to the tree. Thankfully the spear wasn’t actually going  _ through _ him but it looked like he’d fainted or something. He was a friendly boy, the only friendly boy she’d met at Beacon in fact, but she was seriously starting to wonder how he’d gotten through even the preliminary tests for this school.

It looked like she was the one that needed to rescue him so she started climbing. Thick bark and swipes from Crescent Rose gave her enough handholds to slowly make her way up. This was another sign that pointed towards Ozpin being a less than stellar headmaster. She’d done some research on him after he gave her the surprise invite to Beacon a few days ago and what she’d found had been… mixed. He was new this year, freshly retired as a Hunter following an injury to his leg. He’d spoken to the press about grand ideas of transforming the school, great visions of change and progress. Apparently that meant inviting a bunch of unqualified students just so he could take their tuition money and fail them the first day in an overly dangerous initiation test.

Ruby sped up as she start reaching branches, trunk growing narrower.  _ ‘Seriously, what is Ozpin thinking?’ _ She tried to be a good girl who was obedient to authority figures but it was hard at times like this. This was a literal forest full of wild Grimm and he’d thrown over a hundred unprepared and arrogant students into it. Coming from a family of Hunters and Huntresses she and Yang had received a fair bit of hands-on experience with Uncle Qrow but most students at Signal only ever fought other humans. Even the honors students never made it past regulated cage matches with captive yearling Grimm of the weakest varieties. She could only wonder if there some method to Ozpin’s madness or if he was trying to get them all killed to make the school seem more exclusive.

A tiny bit of sweat gathered on her by the time she made it to Jaune some three or four hundred feet up. She could have gotten there quicker but she was trying to preserve her energy for the rest of the test. She had a feeling that half the contestants had probably run screaming back to the starting area by now but she didn’t intend to lose this test without a fight, even if she did get forced into detours to save people.

“Jaune, you okay?” He didn’t look okay. Much of his body was covered by steel armor but the right side of his face was one large mottled bruise from where it struck the tree. The spear -- wherever it came from -- appeared to have kept him from falling but it hadn’t stopped him from smacking himself silly. It was very strange. If he’d been training or something beforehand this sort of injury wouldn’t be totally unexpected but he should have been fresh and ready to go. Even with a below-average aura a single hit shouldn’t have knocked him out of commission like this.

_ ‘Afraid of heights?’ _ she wondered. He  _ had _ vomited on the airship ride to the school. Extreme fear could weaken aura to the point of collapse which might explain what had happened. 

“You’re not gonna wake up, are you.” She groaned and tugged him off the spear shaft onto a branch. He was awfully heavy. Part of that was him, as she blushingly realized he had more muscle on him than she’d thought yesterday, but much of it was that steel armor of his. If she wouldn’t die of embarrassment from attempting it she might have stripped him out of some of it to lighten the load. Instead she unceremoniously lugged him over her shoulder and started to climb back down. 

She generally focused more on speed and skill than brute strength but she was managing. Save for the additional awkwardness of lugging a teenage boy taller than she was around on her shoulder it wasn’t all that different than some of the training her uncle put her through. Well, at least some bark broke off in her hand and sent the pair of them careening downwards.

“Bad day bad day!” She was an excellent acrobat but the additional complication of trying to keep Jaune in one piece was making mid-air maneuvers extremely difficult. She couldn’t even reach Crescent Rose’s trigger without dropping Jaune which unfortunately meant she couldn’t fire off a gravity bullet or two to lower their velocity. A couple swipes against the tree slowed them down fractionally but then she was too far from the trunk to reach it anymore. Eventually she was forced to drop her precious baby, scythe falling away as she used both arms to cradle Jaune from the impact instead of her poor Crescent Rose.

They hit the ground with a sickening crunch. “Owe owe owe!” she rolled onto her back, clutching her legs from the pain. She’d lost more aura from the impact than was advisable in a forest full of Grimm but inspection with her fingers revealed that while in extreme pain, her legs hadn’t actually broken. Just a sprained ankle and some of the worst muscle cramps she’d ever experienced. She realized with a tinge of worry that they probably  _ would _ have broken or even snapped in half if she’d actually been able to stick the landing without dropping Jaune halfway through. Turned out that landing while weighing three hundred something pounds was an awful lot harder than when weighing her normal one hundred.

“Cheese and crackers,” she swore, realizing that she needed to get battle-ready as soon as possible. She wasn’t the best hand-to-demonclaw fighter in the best of circumstances which meant that getting the scythe back in her hands was of paramount importance. And so, despite the pain in her legs -- and her arms and bottom, for that matter -- she crawled around the forest floor searching for her baby.

“Oh no. Crescent you’re not supposed to be there!” Unfortunately her admonishment didn’t change the fact that her precious scythe was sticking so far into Jaune’s back that it was a wonder it wasn’t coming out of his stomach. 

Everything was starting to feel like a terrible dream. It seemed unimaginable that an applicant to the famous Beacon school of hunters could be this injured before even facing a single Grimm. Even after somehow having his aura break his armor should have kept a residual charge for hours if he’d been infusing it with his aura properly. And if he wasn’t then why bother wearing it at all? The steel would hardly give any more protection than her own aura-infused pantyhose while weighing him down considerably.

_ ‘What do I do what do I do!?’ _ Ozpin hadn’t mentioned any sort of predetermined panic signal to get one of the professors to come rescue them. She had her phone though, she could call emergency services. It would take them a while to get here but hopefully they could call Beacon and let them know --

“Damn it!” She covered her mouth with her hand, shocked at her own swear. It was appropriate for the occasion though since her phone was fractured in a dozen places and completely useless.

“Uhh, just hang on buddy, we’ll get through this.” She couldn’t just take the scythe out of him, right? No, that might make him bleed out. But the chances of getting back to the cliffs while her own panic was drawing every Grimm nearby was…

“Just calm down Ruby, you can do this,” she told herself. Everything about this test was going wrong but she still had things under control. She just had to pick up Jaune and carry him with her aching legs until a professor up on the cliff caught sight of her.

She brushed Jaune’s shaggy hair out of his face. “Okay Jaune, just hang on and--” Her thumb brushed his skin ever so slightly but it was enough to notice something strange. She wasn’t certain at first since the only human being she’d touched in years was her sister but after she touched his forehead again she knew it for sure.

“No aura…” Even knocked out and hurt there should have been a trace amount detectible on his skin, pressing back against her own. Instead there was nothing. If he wasn’t still breathing she would have thought he was dead but instead the only option was that somehow, inexplicably, his aura wasn’t unlocked. What was a civilian doing in a test like this?

This changed things. She’d been depending on his aura to keep him stable while she carried him back. Without its ability to speed healing and fortify internal organs it was too dangerous to move him. She didn’t even want to think about the condition of his spine or potential internal bleeding from impacts even before her scythe struck through him. 

Her head cocked as a story from her childhood came back to her. It told of a sacred maiden infusing a prince with the power of her soul to grant him overwhelming might against the dark queen. She knew it was stupid to be thinking about fairy tales at a time like this but she couldn’t get the idea out of her head.  Normally it took a year or two of meditation to awaken one’s aura for the fifty percent of those capable of doing so. After that it was another few years of rigorous training to improve its strength and the user’s control over it to useful levels, though many students never achieved more than enough aura to stop a butterknife. Knowing all that, a magic technique to instantly grant aura powers was nothing more than fantasy, but it was all she had under these desperate circumstances.

Carefully she worked her hands her the back of his chest plate, grimacing as blood coated her fingers. She stopped once she had a hand to either side of Crescent Rose’s blade. Skin was a natural barrier to aura so despite the squickiness she was right in contact with the blade and the wound. She didn’t know the first thing about the possibly imaginary technique. Didn’t know where to direct her aura or how much to use or if she was supposed to filter it somehow. All she could do was shove as much aura into him as possible and focus on the thought him getting better so that she could pull her scythe out of him and fight their way out of this accursed forest. 

She felt the drain immediately as Jaune sucked in everything she had. Before she could. stop the flow it felt like some deeper well of power inside her exploded. Her eyes burned as a globe of silver light burst forth from her in all directions. Cameras and Beowolves alike shattered and dissolved into nothingness but Ruby noticed none of that as she fiercely shut her burning eyes.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

 

**Chapter 2:**

 

“Owe, my head.” Ruby sat up slowly, massaging her aching temples. What was she do--

Her eyes snapped wide open despite the migraine it caused her. “Jaune? Jaune where are you?” She could see a pool of his blood on the forest floor but there was no other sign of the boy. It was hard to believe that something or hopefully some _ one _ would have carried him off and just left her but she couldn’t think of any other explanation. All that was left in his place was -- “Crescent Rose?”

Her most precious creation looked nothing like it had before she fell unconscious. If it wasn’t for the absurdity of there being some scythe-swapper running around the woods she wouldn’t even believe it the same weapon. All sign of shift-tech and sniping barrel was erased from its form, only a bent-crescent blade and simple shaft remaining. The color scheme had changed as well, silver blade turning to black and red that seemed to move like oil just beneath the surface. The shaft meanwhile had turned a chalky white like dried bone.

She picked up apprehensively, rotating it slowly above her lap as she examined it. “What happened to you baby?”

Suddenly the weapon escaped her grip as it transformed into something entirely different. A red-haired woman dressed in white and black landed heavily on her lap. If that wasn’t enough to shock Ruby stiff, the kiss the woman placed on her forehead more than did the job.

“Wh-who?” A look at the woman’s face as a sprinkling of sunlight hit it only raised more questions. It was utterly impossible but she’d stared at that face in photo frames for so many hours over so many years that it was impossible to mistake it. “Mom?”

The woman didn’t respond with words but instead nuzzled Ruby’s neck and drew her into a tight embrace. “How?” asked Ruby, nearly choking on the word. Tears ran down her cheeks as she hugged Summer Rose, her long lost mother, with all her might. This had to be real this time, not just a dream. She could feel her so vividly, it couldn’t be her imagination. Unlike her dreams Ruby was grown up now, only a couple inches shorter than her mother. This had to be real.

“Mama brought me here,” said Summer Rose, speaking at last. Her voice was different than Ruby remembered. The pitch and tenor were the same but word choice and lilt gave it a very different feel. Less maternal and wise and instead almost childish.

Ruby ran her mother’s words through her head a dozen times but couldn’t make sense of them. Worry had her shaking as inconsistencies mounted. Her mother hadn’t aged a day since she left and now she was talking about her grandmother who died long before Ruby was even born. Her headache grew fiercer as she tried and failed to understand what was going on.

_ ‘Crescent Rose.’ _ If she just had her in her hands again the world would start making sense again. She’d have something sturdy to hold onto against the spinning world and the Grimm no doubt coming their way.

“Where’s Crescent Rose?”

Summer cocked her head. “What do you mean? I’m Crescent Rose.”

“Huh?” This was crazy. “You can’t be.”

“No, I am! I remember. You made me. Forged me. Every little piece with care. I’m all yours, Mama.”

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Ruby pushed away from specter’s embrace but couldn’t bring herself to break contact completely for fear that Summer would fade away.

“I’m Summer too, a little bit,” she said, trying to explain. “I was her in your dreams. I remember playing tag with you in the meadow. And your lullaby.” Summer started humming then, stroking Ruby’s hair as she continued to cry. “But I remember Jaune more. It’s weird remembering being a man. Or a boy, at least.” 

“Jaune? You’re Jaune?” The nod from her stopped Ruby’s crying. Stopped everything. Her body felt like it was at a far remove as what she’d done struck her full-force. Putting that much aura into someone else’s body simply wasn’t done. Ever. Aura healers might do it but only with very small amounts of aura that was carefully attuned to the recipient to not disrupt their own aura. Likewise some specialists could supposedly attack an opponent’s internal organs with injected aura but what she’d done was entirely different. She’d shoved massive amounts of aura, more than she even knew she had, straight into the very core of a defenseless civilian’s soul in a hamfisted attempt at awakening his aura. The fact that he was still alive at all was a miracle.

He was alive, wasn’t he?

Abruptly Ruby was pushed aside just as some boar-like Grimm went charging past. What could she do? Her scythe was her mother was Jaune was -- was in her hands. She dodged out of the way of the next spinning charge just in time, blade sweeping out to catch the boar-Grimm in the side. It was more maneuverable in its ball-state than she expected and twisted away from the full blow but the scythe still cut a mean strike across its flank. Smoke billowed from its side for a brief moment only to be sucked into the inky depths of the scythe blade. 

The injury angered the boar-Grimm but it didn’t do much to slow it down. It didn’t bother doing its ball-charge again but instead just ran at her with its tusks. This at least was something she was familiar with, a smooth windmill strike bisecting its oversized head cleanly. 

She spun the scythe in her customary flourish to rid it of nasty Grimm smoke. It was an unnecessary gesture as Crescent Rose had already consumed most of it like some absurd vacuum but it still felt good to do it. It was a comfortable and familiar habit that helped to ground her. Her scythe had changed beyond belief but its weighting was still largely the same. There was one strange discrepancy though, the mass of the scythe seemed to be greater than its weight. Physics wasn’t her favorite class in the world but she could have sworn that was impossible without gravity dust and aura manipulation. 

Concordant howls from a nearby pack of Beowolves cut her examinations short. “I-- we should go,” said Ruby. The scythe seemed to hum in her hands in response, a sign that she hadn’t just imagined it was alive.

Distress was looked on poorly in Vale fairy tales. There were any number of moral stories against getting caught up in one’s own despair and drawing death down on everyone around them from Grimm. But right now Ruby couldn’t seem to put on that cheerful attitude she so often clung to. She just wanted to find other people so that when the Grimm came calling she wouldn’t have to fight alone.

A shocked scream from ahead sped her pace. She covered a hundred meters in seconds to come upon a small sunless clearing. The haughty white-haired girl -- Weiss -- that she’d met yesterday was surrounded by four Beowolves. None of them looked older than ten years but Weiss’s slender rapier didn’t invoke much confidence in her ability to deal with them. 

Not giving it another thought, Ruby swept in with with a decapitating blow. Crescent cut through its neck so easily she redirected it right into its fellow, blade slicing through its abdomen as easily as it did the other’s neck. The third wolf-Grimm lunged at her instinctively and met much the same fate as the others. The last was injured in the leg by Weiss but kept charging, its claws taking a mighty swipe out of Weiss’s aura before Ruby’s blade planted itself in the wolf’s side. The blade stuck briefly from the poor angle she’d used in her haste but then the creature died and started dissolving like the other three.

“I DIDN’T NEED YOUR HELP!” shrieked Weiss, voice so loud and high-pitched that Ruby would have covered her ears if it wouldn’t have been too rude.

“Umm…” Ruby wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. The rich girl carted around enough dust to either buy a mansion or make one explode but she didn’t seem like the best fighter. Three wolves down and she’d still nearly gotten disemboweled. It was lucky she was seventeen and had had more time to develop her aura, Ruby knew at least a few of her old fifteen-year-old classmates wouldn’t have been able to take a strike like that without damage.

“I can’t believe I’m supposed to be partners with a nitwit like you!” Weiss’s voice was less loud than an airhorn this time but still just as shrieky. 

It took a moment for Ruby to remember what she was talking about. When she recalled Ozpin’s rule about partnering with the first person they met eyes with she wished she hadn’t remembered at all. The very thought of such a stupid rule was bringing back her migraine.

_ ‘What do I do?’ _ She wasn’t a rule-breaker, not unless it concerned cookies, but she  _ really _ didn’t want to become the girl’s partner. Unlike weapons, people were complicated and often mean to her, and Weiss was both those things to a very strong degree. Ruby really wished Yang hadn’t told her to go make friends. She’d never had friends before so why couldn’t she just team up with her big sister?

Ruby sighed, leaning against Crescent Rose. She supposed that not everyone at Beacon had been terrible to her. She’d met Jaune -- Jaune who was currently part of the scythe she was leaning on, she remembered darkly.

“Are you going to say something or just stand there like an idiot!?” asked Weiss.

Ruby sighed again. She’d already created an abomination today in the eyes of God and Man, why not break one more rule? “I’m not going to be your partner.” She started walking away, grateful that at least the older girl had been too busy shouting to notice how her scythe has sucked in the dusty remains of all the Grimm she’d killed.

“Don’t you walk away from me, brat!”

Ruby ignored her, only tossing one piece of advice over her shoulder. “You should be more quiet, or more Grimm will hear you.”

Thankfully Weiss didn’t follow her after that.

 

The woods were lovely if she ignored the possibility of death around every turn and the quagmire she held in her hands. She supposed that technically Jaune should be her partner since she met him in the woods first but it wasn’t like she could just come out and say that. Couldn’t tell anyone that she’d changed him into a scythe that sometimes, somehow, looked like her mother. There wasn’t a law on the books for that sort of thing but she was sure the punishment wouldn’t be anything good.

Suddenly the scythe wasn’t a scythe anymore. The scythe was her slightly-taller-than-her mother, hand holding hers. Their interlocked hands bobbed up and down as Summer-not-Summer skipped along cheerfully like a little girl. 

“That tasted great, Mama. Can I have some more?”

More what? Surely she didn’t mean…  _ ‘She ate the Grimm. My scythe eats Grimm.’ _ That was both horrifying and strangely appropriate for a future Huntress’s weapon. “Uh, sure I guess. Some more will probably be along soon.” 

Realizing how hard it would be to explain her companion if she ran into any other Beacon applicants or, God forbid, her sister, she had to ask a favor. “Do you mind changing back into a scythe for now? Just until I’m sure we’re alone?”

“Will do, Mama.” Summer gave a sloppy salute before morphing back into scythe form. Ruby stared down at her as she walked aimlessly. What on Remnant was she going to do about all this once the test was over?

* * *

More chapters available at <https://lycelia.com/?id=25> or favorite this story for my next release tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

“Oye, pipsqueak, watch where you’re going.”

Ruby fell back onto her already bruised behind after smacking head-first into a steel breastplate. “Uh, hi,” she said while still somewhat dazed.

“Can you fight?” he asked.

“What?”

“Have you killed Grimm?”

“Uh, yes?” she replied, not sure if she should state a number or whether assists counted at all.

He stared down at her before offering her his hand. “I guess you’ll do.” She took his hand and was yanked back to her feet with more force than was truly necessary. “I was going to partner with Dove but he ran into goth-girl first.”

Dove and said “goth-girl” then move into sight, previously hidden from Ruby’s view by Cardin’s wide and muscular frame. Dove’s eyes were nearly shut, a grin on his face like a mischievous fox. His companion was the same ribbon-wearing girl from yesterday that had helped her with Weiss and disappeared before she could thank her. The girl had seemed friendly enough in the sunlit courtyard but here in the woods she seemed as predatory as her companion. There was a subtle glint to her glaring eyes that made Ruby feel like a helpless mouse.

“Okay then,” said Ruby, not feeling like she could say anything else. The boy started walking upon her acceptance. The other two followed him as Ruby brought up the rear. It wasn’t the welcoming, friendly team she’d dreamed of.  _ ‘Well, at least I haven’t been tossed out yet,’ _ she thought, trying to look on the bright side. Much of her though was wishing she hadn’t ever accepted Ozpin’s invitation. Signal was boring and would have been even lonelier than ever with her sister gone but at least she wouldn’t have…

_ ‘God, I still can’t believe I thought that was a good idea.’ _ Admittedly she still wasn’t able to think of an alternative that ended with Jaune alive but there must have been a way. Had she actually murdered him in that moment? She still couldn’t tell how much was Jaune and how much was her obsession about her weapon and her mother somehow brought to unholy life. 

Ruby flinched as a trio of bullets went off right by her ear, a tiny Nevermore collapsing with a shriek. Ribbon-wearing-girl stared into her eyes as if she could see her corrupted soul and said, “Stop daydreaming. The person in the back of the party is supposed to  _ guard _ the back, not offer herself as a meal.”

Dove snickered at her comment while Ruby’s partner just continued plowing on. His mace wasn’t the best tool for clearing underbrush but his strength made up the difference. “Right,” said Ruby. “Will do.”

Despite the path their leader was blazing it was a little tricky following the group with her scythe out. Crescent Rose was significantly larger than she was and all the changes the scythe went through hadn’t changed that fact. Not being able to fold it -- _ her _ , she remembered-- up with shift-tech was making carrying it fairly inconvenient. Crescent’s ability to walk for herself would make up for that though if she dared reveal the ability to her companions. She did not, however, dare.

It occurred to Ruby that she she should introduce herself. She could be partnered with him for four years if the rumors she’d heard were accurate, she should at least know his name. “Umm, I’m Ruby, Ruby Rose. What’s your name -- err, names,” she corrected, trying to be inclusive even though she already sort of knew the other two.

The girl answered first, sounding like the whole world could burn and she wouldn’t even care. “Blake Belladonna.”

“Dove Bronzewing, at your service milady.” Ruby restrained a grimace as he kissed her hand. He wasn’t bad-looking exactly but something about him creeped her out. She would have dodged him completely if she wasn’t so out of sorts.

“Cardin Winchester,” said her partner. “But get ready to call me Captain.” 

Before Ruby could process that a loud, piercing whistle cut through the woods. A siren, from high on the cliff.

“That’s the signal to retreat,” said Cardin, mace raised overhead mid-strike.

“But we haven’t found the artifacts yet,” said Dove.

“I know,” said Cardin bitterly.

“We could keep going,” suggested Blake, seemingly at ease in the dark woods.

“We, umm, we should go back,” said Ruby, her voice squeaking a few times. Having all of them stare at her was deeply uncomfortable so she added, “It’s a dangerous test, something may have happened.” She didn’t mention that something had already happened and that she’d had a part in it. 

“Fine,” said Cardin, spikes of his mace retracting as he sheathed it on his back. “Lead the way back home then, pipsqueak.”

“I’m not that short,” she complained. She was only a little shorter than her mother now. Or, at least, the memory of her mother that she’d resurrected with the soul of a fellow student and her own forbidden aura manipulation. She wished she had some cookies and milk to feel better. Not that she  _ should _ feel better, because she knew she’d done something totally evil… but she still wanted those cookies.

“You look like a little kid to me,” he replied.

Ruby grit her teeth, a growl hovering in her throat just at the edge of hearing range. Here she was trying to feel bad and instead her partner was so rude that she was rapidly shifting towards rage. “I’m fifteen, I’m still growing alright!”

“Fifteen?” said Blake, a hint of surprise breaking through her stubborn shell of apathy and disdain. “How’d you get into Beacon two years early?”

“I, uhh, stopped a dust robbery? Mostly. The head guy got away in a bullhead, along with a dust witch. Oh, and the pilot, I suppose. But I got like four or five other guys! Umm, but they didn’t really have much aura. But I was still like Ka-Pow! Ka-Powiie!” A branch interrupted her impromptu performance after Crescent cut through it. She dodged it before it could land on her head though so she wasn’t totally embarrassed. Just mostly.

“Where’d you study?” asked Dove.

“Signal?” replied Ruby. She wasn’t sure why she was ending so many of her responses like they were questions but it was proving a difficult habit to break. 

“Never heard of it,” said Cardin.

Ruby struggled not to be offended by that. It was a fine school, the best school in her opinion, but it was admittedly a bit remote and poorly attended. “It’s on Patch.”

“Oh,” replied Cardin. “You’re one of those island hillbillies. A lot of things make sense now.”

“I AM NOT A--”

“Grimm!” shouted Blake. The Creep came out of nowhere, a true ambush predator. Its defense was vastly poorer than its offense however and it soon suffered the definition of overkill as all four students struck it at once. To Ruby’s irritation someone must have used explosive rounds because it exploded into a million pieces all over her before Crescent could cleanly dispose of it. The fact that all the blood and viscera dissolved into smoke just seconds later didn’t erase the wet and oily sensation on her skin.

“Damnit Cardin, I told you no more explosives near me,” said Blake. Blake seemed to Ruby even more upset about it than she was, the black-haired girl rubbing her face with pine needles to try and restore some of its freshness. Ruby considered trying the same but the sound of bullets nearby distracted her.

Being Hunters and Huntresses in training they naturally ran towards the bullets rather than away. Sounds of dying Grimm grew louder and soon enough they came upon the killing field. Dozens of students were in the clearing in front of the cliffs, all rushing to reach the narrow stone hidden on the cliffside. Whole packs of Beowolves followed them, Ursas pounding alongside. A hail of bullets from above slowed the pursuing Grimm as the students fled, even as three bullheads and Glynda Goodwitch fended off a flock of Nevermores above. The largest of the flock was so ancient that it shrugged off the bullets easily, only a constant barrage of spells from Glynda keeping it from feathering the whole field.

“What a clusterf--”

“Not in front of the kid, Cardin,” said Blake, cutting him off.

Ruby suddenly felt too exhausted to argue that she was perfectly old enough to hear swears, even if she didn’t much like them. She’d even been to a bar before with Yang and drank a virgin daiquiri that left her tipsy for hours*. But right now getting to safety seemed far more important than arguing her immense maturity. “We should start running, right?”

“Yeah,” said Blake. “Let’s do that.”

 

_ And that’s it for this chapter! _

* Totally psychosomatic. No alcohol in virgin daiquiris. Yay for drink humor.


	4. The Wonderful Wizard…

**_Chapter 4:_ ** **The Wonderful Wizard…**

“Tragically two students lost their lives as a result of the deadly Grimm, not a trace of their bodies to be found. Many more have gone home, unable to face the terrors that lay outside Vale’s walls.” 

Ozpin’s voice was strong, confident despite setbacks. If Ruby hadn’t lived through the tragedy herself she might have been swept up by the charisma of the man. Truly though, she hadn’t though he’d been nearly this handsome the first time she met him. His crutch seemed like nothing more than a fashion statement, muscles visible even through his tuxedo and crow’s feet gone like they never were. He even seemed a few inches taller than she remembered. For an old guy he was actually quite fetching, he could even fit in with some of the upperclassmen from a distance.

“But the rest of you are stronger for this experience. Here at Beacon you will grow stronger still and learn to protect those who need protection.” 

_ ‘That’s weird,’ _ thought Ruby.  _ ‘Did he just blink for a second?’ _ And not the normal sort of blinking, more like a flashlight that was briefly turned off and restarted it.  _ ‘No way!’ _ He did it again, words picking up a little static as he did so. It was strange enough to break through the dark cloud that had clung to her since the morning initiation test and awaken her curiosity. Was this his semblance? It was a strange one if so. Some sort of momentary invulnerability or brief invisibility to throw off foes?

“Students of four kingdsz _ zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz _ .” His image cut out entirely, voice continuing onwards briefly before cutting to static. 

“Was that a hologram?” said Blake. The older girl looked so dumbfounded that even her bow was twitching. It reminded Ruby of some of the cartoons she used to (and sometimes still did) watch, but she couldn’t blame Blake. Compared to the rest of the audience she was taking it pretty well. 

_ ‘Neat hologram.’ _ It was miles better than the one Ruby saw of Glynda on the ride over. It would have been cooler if he’d actually been showing off his semblance but she was still impressed. That was a top-of-the-line hologram, likely straight out of Atlas. She’d had no idea the school had the budget for something like that. The classrooms and dorms must be amazing if they could afford to spend that much lien just on public speeches.

The commotion amongst the students dimmed as Ozpin, the  _ real _ Ozpin, stepped out from behind a curtain. Apparently Ruby’s eyes hadn’t failed her the first time she met him, he was definitely less handsome and more awkward in person than his hologram. Hopefully he’d get it fixed soon, in-person speeches were overrated. 

“Well, ah-hem.” He cleared his throat and shuffled over behind the podium before continuing. “There’s been some, ah, technical difficulties. But you’ve all been assigned teams so go get settled in, your classes start in the morning.” He walked off quickly after that.

“Funny,” said Dove. “He mentioned the two that died, but he didn’t say anything about the three that got maimed.”

* * *

Chapter 12 available [here](https://lycelia.com/?id=25)


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